A diet of too many television chefs is giving children an appetite for the wrong foods, a new study warns.

Children in an experiment who watched cookery shows ate one-and-a-half times as many pancakes afterwards.

And they sprinkled almost twice as much sugar on their meal compared to those watching a programme about nature and gardening.

The experiment with youngsters, aged from six to 11, may go some way to explaining the epidemic of childhood obesity

The experiment with youngsters, aged from six to 11, may go some way to explaining the epidemic of childhood obesity.

The NHS says more than a fifth of four and five-year-old children in reception classes are now overweight or obese, rising to more than one in three for children in year six.

The study, whose lead author was research assistant Evy Neyens of the University of Leuven in Belgium, said: 'TV cooking shows such as Masterchef, or shows from celebrity TV chefs, such as Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay or Nigella Lawson, are very popular nowadays.

'However, the meals that are prepared in these shows contain too much sugar, fat, and, or salt according to World Health Organization guidelines. And increasingly, we also see children's versions of these cooking shows popping up.

Research assistant Evy Neyens said TV chefs are using too much sugar, fat and salt in their cooking

'Although children are not the primary target audience, TV cooking shows are broadcast in prime-time when most children are watching.

'Chefs typically tend to prepare rather large portions of palatable, energy-dense meals. Since eating habits that are learned as a child will continue to exert an influence during adult life, it is important to develop [healthy] guidelines for such TV cooking shows.'

In the study 111 children from two age groups - 6–7 versus 10–11 year olds, watched two television progammes - one about nature and gardening, and a cookery programme by the Belgian equivalent of Jamie Oliver making a local dessert.

The pupils who watched the non-food show ate an average of 887 grammes of pancakes as a snack afterwards, while those who had watched the chef ate up to 1244 grammes.

And while the non-food tv show pupils sprinkled 18 grammes of sugar on their treat, those who had watched the television chef ate up to 34 grammes.

Even editing out references to sugar in the cookery programe did not make a marked difference overall.

The study, in the journal Appetite, found: 'Children who watched a TV cooking show ate significantly more of the pancakes compared to children who watched a non-food TV show.

'The results showed that children sprinkled significantly more sugar on their pancakes after watching a cooking show episode compared to watching a non-food TV show.

'However, children's sugar selection did not differ significantly between the cooking episode that did and did not show how much sugar the chef sprinkled on his pancakes.'

It concluded that cooker programmes should be more educational, as well as entertaining.

'TV cooking shows may function as a tool to actually teach viewers how to cook healthy meals and adopt a healthy diet.'